98 Saturn won't crank! Please help!!

You can take a wire and unplug the safety switch and put the wire in both terminals and black tape it up. BUT REMEMBER IT WILL START IN GEAR WITHOUT PUSHING THE CLUTCH IN IF YOU DO.

This will bypass the clutch safety switch.

Did your mechanic adjust the switch. Have you tryed manually pushing it (without the pedal) and trying to start it.

I am unsure of it being the safety switch itself. I bought a new one and replaced it. There is no difference.

Yes we have tried pushing the switch itself without the clutch pedal. No luck.

It is the switch but if the bushings are bad it is probably kicking by it instead of pushing the switch.The only way to fix it is replace the bushings, replace the pedals or bypass it like I described.

There doesn't seem to be any loose wires to the safety switch either.

Ok. There is usually two on a clutch one just under the dash to dis-engage cruise control when the clutch is pressed and the clutch safety start switch which will be triggered near the end of the clutch pedal travel. Take a quick look and see if the right one was changed. Not sure if yours is adjustible. My sister had this problem. She actually put in aftermarket floor mats that were to thick which prevented the clutch from being pushed all the way.

But if it was just the bushings wouldn't the car start when I press the switch in directly with my hand. There it's no corrosion on the wires.

Try what I said first. Disconnect the switch and put a wire in the plug in for the switch and see if it cranks.They may have sold you a bad switch.

My car does not have cruise control. There is only one switch anywhere the clutch

Wow my internet blows. You two type to fast. Check the switch as tuff said. if you by-pass it and it doesn't start i'd check the starter and ignition

Yes it would unless you have the wrong switch or the new one is bad. Like yeti said there are 2 switches.

I will try it. It is too late now. I Wii let you know of it works.

Yetti is right. If you bypass it and nothing then I would look at the starter

Thanks. If I bypass it and it doesn't work, what is the next most cost friendly step to take?

Check the starter.

How would I figure out if it is the ignition?

If your not scared of sparks and if your careful you can jump the started to see if it works. If it's not the starter it will be the ignition switch.

Do you have a multi meter or test light?

I'm pretty certain my friend does. Would a starter work intermittently? There is never clicking or any noises that says it is even trying to turn over.

Yes it can work intermittently. There would be no noise if the bendix is failing. Try the test light on the clutch switch leads. And work your way to the the starter. If there is no 12 volt power at the clutch switch it's the ignition (or fuse, but that should have been a quick failure). If you get power to the crank wire on the starter the starter is the issue.

Ok. We will try. I'll post when we do

Sounds like you may have an issue with your starter. The starter may have a short in it and is likely overheating. And usually once the starter cools down after sitting for a while, the car will start right back up. I'm having a similar issue myself with my 00' S Series right now. I'm hoping mine is the clutch safety switch because I replaced the starter myself about only two years ago or so and it just doesn't seem possible that the starter would be going out already when the original lasted roughly 15 years and over 100,000+ miles before dying. And the safety switch, of course, is an inexpensive and simple fix compared to the starter that's behind and practically on the bottom of the engine block. And seeing as how I modified the suspension on my car by lowering it, I can't simply drive it up on ramps like I could have if I'd left the suspension stock. But I digress. I hope this info helps and gives you a little insight into what's causing this issue with you Saturn! I don't know about you but, I love mine and it's been an excellent and super reliable car for almost 20 years now. I bought mine brand new off the Saturn showroom floor back in December of 1999. Aside from the typical and expected maintenance of an aging car, it still runs great and always manages to get me from point a to b consistently, normally with absolutely no issues whatsoever. And if it'll let me, I'll drive my Saturn till the wheels fall off! Lol! Good luck and best wishes on your fix!!

I'm having similar issues except mine is not a 5- Speed, it's an Automatic so it's a little different. My issue Is alittle straing and become very complicated because before this happened it was running and driving exellent. So I will try to explain best I can and start from the beginning... I was driving for about 20-30 home from work right before I battery light turned on at the cluster then lights started flickering and car started slowly losing power then the car died as I was parking it. So my initial thoughts were alternator so before replacing your since it's at the bottom of the car I wanted to get checked at the parts store on the car, took the battery off so took inside and hooked it to my charger and let it charge for the night, the next day I hooked it back up to the car and no crank no start, The Next Step was to test the battery but since the battery was only 1 year old I didn't think that would be an issue and when I took it into the parts store they had initially told me that the battery is good but the voltage was low which I had already knew since they offered to charge it all night and I'm going to cost I was on my way to work I gave them the okay thinking maybe I have a problem with my battery charger. Later after work I went in to pick it up and the new worker on shift told me the battery was bad which was different than the first worker had told me that it was good anyways this was very strange to me since the battery was on 11 mom's old and only had been used for about 3 months, but I thought hey good news I have warranty on battery now I don't have to replace alternator. So I went in to have my battery replaced and they wouldn't do it do to not having the receipt to prove that I had purchased it. So instead of buying a new one I took the one off my other car which was the same size battery but had top posts instead of side posts, so I bought adapters for the Posts, installed them and the car started right up!!! But bad news after I moved the car to a new spot I turn the car off tried to crank it back over to make sure it would start by again and no crank no start! But now it was just clicking and I could hear it was clicking from the fuel pump relay. How weird since the voltage on a battery was good and I also had hooked up to it another car for a jump just click click click fuel pump relay. So now I'm having a starting issue, and since I had a brand new starter allready at home just sitting there in the box. I figured might as well put that in before checking it, And so I replaced it and still no start no crank! So I thought how lame I just waisted time on the starter for no reason. And I started checking other possible things it could be and so i checked Neutral Safety Switch (NSS) by jumping it with wire connected at the 2 purple wires - still no crank, then checked power to NSS - no power traveling into NSS from wires, checked power to ignition switch - no power traveling into switch from wires, have not checked ignition switch itself. At this point I thought that this was start becoming very complicated and wanted to be safe and make sure the old starter wasn't an actual issue before I began trying a bunch of different things and reading up on all the possibilities it could be, so I took the starter into the parts store and had it checked and it was bad. So now I'm thinking we'll maybe I installed a bad Brand New Starter so I decided to jump the starter itself with the keys on and the car started right up so I thought I was now dealing with just a start issue especially since after being under car now several times I could see that the original thong that I had thought it was (alternator) was itself actually new and been replaced recently by previous owners. But after about fifteen minutes of the car sitting there running after jumping the starter itself the battery light came on again and then the headlights started flickering again and then the cluster shut off then bthe car started losing power and then stalled again. So now the car is having a no start issue and a what seems to be a charge or battery issue so I'm very frustarted at this point. So the next thing I did was replaced the fudible link witch runs between the starter and the alternator and still no start no carnk and after charging bthe battery again I could manually jump the starter itself again and it did the same thing which was slowly starting stalling out until after about fifteen minutes of running it stalls out. So then I thought I'm going to need to get the battery I was using checked, after talking it to the parts store I was able to actually talk this store into giving me a brand new $180 battery, and the correct side posts battery for the car. And I took off the adapters for the top posts that I had installed and cleaning a bunch of grounds and wires that looked dirty with a wire brush it still was no carnk no start!!! So then I checked the F5 circuit at the fuse box by pulling off the fuse box and taking that apart and that was good, not blown or burnt at all(as some people have suggested in alot less posts and in a couple you tube videos.). Also just fyi I allready have checked all the fuses with tester now several times. So let me remind you all brand new battery, brand new starter, new alternator and still no crank no start. Now what. I'm stumped??????